Cal star strives for NCAA title; Olympics

Even when he's merely working on his run up to the high jump, Cal senior Ed Wright stares down the bar he eventually wants to clear.

"Every day we do approaches and I set the bar at 2.30," Wright said, referring to the metric height that converts to 7 feet, 61/2 inches. "So I've seen it a lot and it doesn't look high. I just have to jump it."

Literally setting the bar high, even when he's not trying to scale it, is something Wright has done since his days at St. Mary's High School in Berkeley.

"It's something I got in the habit of doing so that if I was in a competition and got to that height, I wouldn't be freaked out by the bar," he said.

For Wright, who will try to defend his Pac-10 title Friday and Saturday at Arizona

State, 7-61/2 is no random height. It looms as the formidable Olympic "A" qualifying standard, would break Cal's 18-year-old school record of 7-53/4 and is just about what Wright figures will be necessary to win the NCAA title.

Wright, whose lifetime best jump is 7-31/4, has a ways to go before he achieves any of the aforementioned goals.

He's trying to maintain perspective and not allow long-term ambitions to distract him from what's next on his plate.

"I know it's an Olympic year and there's a lot of hype surrounding the Beijing Games," he said. "A lot of people come up and ask, 'Are you going to the Olympics?' "The college season is the most important for me. I still have goals of winning the Pac-10 again and going on to (NCAA)

regionals and winning that. The No. 1 goal is being a national champion."

Cal associate head coach Ed Miller, who works with Wright, said the two spent time early this spring adding speed to Wright's approach, then making sure his technique wasn't thrown off as a result.

"I would say 7-41/2 would be about the lowest bar I would be happy with. I really believe he's got a 7-5-plus jump in him," Miller said, when asked Wright's immediate potential.

Still, Wright and Miller agree that winning takes priority over clearing a particular height. Wright ranks third among Pac-10 jumpers this season and is one of six who have cleared at least 7 feet. The NCAA competition will be even more fierce, with many of the top athletes also among the favorites headed into the Olympic trials.

"I actually look at the trials and I don't look at him as a rookie jumper," Miller said of the meet at Eugene, Ore., that begins June 27. "He's a veteran who's looking for some technical breakthroughs. If he can find them, he can have some success.

"He handles his nerves well, he's a good competitor. The trials is a big meet, but he thrives in those atmospheres."

Because many high jumpers don't peak until their late 20s, Wright's best days may still be down the road. But even at age 22, he thinks he's ready to tangle with the nation's best.

"I'm thinking I can make the (Olympic) team. Of course, I have such a high level of respect for those guys and being in that environment alone is an accomplishment," he said. "Getting there and actually mixing it up with them is what I'm looking forward to."